Freebie Sites Taking the Net by Storm

Why, from the site owner and user perspective, freebie sites have seen such tremendous growth over the past years and show continuing promise for the years to come.

Keywords:

freebies, freebie sites, free stuff sites, incentivize, incentives

Article Body:

The first freebie site saw the light approximately 4 years ago. Since then, millions of users have signed up for them and business owners have multiplied their offerings a thousand fold. The industry continues to show tremendous growth as browsers can’t get enough of these sites and the people that run them are capitalizing big time.

The basis of this business model is a simple one: “incentivized”, or “forced leads”. Let’s try and make those industry terms clear for the layman. It all begins with online advertisers of the CPA variety. Advertisers in all shapes and sizes offer a CPA or Cost Per Acquisition payout to affiliates that promote their offers. When a user signs up for one of these offers, the affiliate makes a commission.

Here is where the “incentivized” part comes in. The affiliate, in this case a freebie site owner, shares this commission with the user that generated it. This sharing takes many forms including gifts ranging form the original free iPod to free Xbox 360s and just about anything in between. Cashback rewards have also become increasingly popular and some users have made over $10,000 in easy money just by completing various affiliate offers on freebie sites.

Beyond the opportunity to make free money or earn a gift, these sites have something else working in their favor that make them spread like wild fire: viral marketing. Word of mouth for these literally spreads like a virus, from one person to their social network and so on. The reason for this is that freebie sites offer rewards to users who refer new users.

On one side of the business model, users are required to complete one offer themselves and refer a set number of friends to do the same so they can earn their free gifts. On the other side, users earn a fixed cash bonus for every person they refer to the site.

That’s all well and good from the user’s perspective, but what makes this model so attractive to the business owners that run these sites? The simple answer is of course money. Here is how these earnings break down.

In this first example, the site owner is offering a Video Ipod for 8 referrals. This means the user has to sign up to the site, complete one offer and refer 8 of their friends or family to do the same. Once this process is complete, they receive their gift. Here is the catch: 90% of users can fill an offer and refer one, two, three friends. Then it gets hard and unless the user in question has a huge social network or knowledge of how to get more referrals through forums or advertising, it pretty much stops there. In this case, the site owner has generated an average of $25 to 30 per completed offer and has not shipped a gift. That’s $25 to $120 in profit without doing a thing.

For this second example, the site uses the revenue share principle. When a user completes an offer, they get 60% of the commission money. With thousands of dollars in offers up for grabs, the site owner is pocketing 40% of hundreds of dollars per user.

Both models have a third stream of revenue which is more or less exploited according to the knowledge and savvy of the particular site owner. Freebie sites can generate thousands of signups per week. That means thousands of optin email addresses that can then be marketed to. Smart site owners will choose the right offers to present to this ever growing list and be on their way to opening up another extremely viable source of income.

Here comes the dark side. Spammers have caught onto this principle and instead of using lists wisely, have thrown every offer in the book at their users until they turned away in disgust. Some of the largest operations have even sold customer lists with millions of names to known spammers in exchange for a quick buck.

As the industry forges ahead, the sites that promote integrity and originality in their offerings will reap long term rewards while seeing steady growth for years to come.

Get Paid For Taking Surveys – Companies and Site Offers

This is a review article for companies paying for surveys.

Keywords:

Paid Surveys, Surveys, cash surveys, how to make money surveys, online surveys, money making surveys, surveys making money, surveys online, Cash Paid Surveys, Get Paid For Surveys

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It is a known fact that there are many ways to earn some extra cash from home. Making money from paid surveys is one of these ways. Many people such as students, part time workers and housewives, find it an excellent effortless way to improve their lifestyle. If you are not one of these lucky people, it is time to join.

You do not need to do much to get paid for taking surveys. In fact, you just need to register with one or a few surveying companies. In general, there are three types of companies that might offer you the chance get paid for taking surveys.

There are many different kinds of sites and companies to be aware of. Database companies do not offer paid surveys, they provide you with an up-to-date database of companies who will pay you to take surveys. Mediator sites have several marketing companies or product companies as their clients and handle their survey processing. If you join such a site, you are guaranteed a good flow of reasonably paid surveys. Marketing companies is the main source. Some marketing companies process their surveys by their own. From certain prospective, it is best to join such survey lists however the frequency might not be that good as with the other two types.

Sometime you need to pay a membership fee to enter the get paid for taking surveys world. Usually the database sites and the mediator sites require an application fee in order to get you registered with them. This fee is usually very affordable and minor compared to the possible earnings. This fact does not mean that you have to pay it though. Always check and see if you are able to find the same information for free.

Another thing that might be of interest is how much you can earn for a month from paid surveys. While sometimes, you may get paid for taking surveys with $10, in other occasions the remuneration may be $3 only. Of course, there are very well paid surveys. A phone survey may bring you up to $150 and a focus group survey can add as much as $250 to your monthly budget. Because the figures vary greatly it is not possible to make a realistic estimate how much you will be earning from surveys.

The mount of money that you will make depends on the number of the surveys you will complete. You may have time to complete 10 surveys only, each for $5 and another person may be lucky and complete 50 surveys for $10. In addition, you are dependant on the surveying companies to send you surveys. The frequency depends on the type of the company and on your profile. You may get two or three surveys within a day or receive no surveys for a whole week.

Finally, the most important thing, make sure you are dealing with serious, legitimate and credible companies to avoid disappointment. Do your homework and check the company out in as many ways as you can be for you give them you valuable time and effort.

Feel free to visit some of my sites Cash Paid Surveys and Get Paid For Surveys

Golf Advertising - Taking It On The Green

I’m not too much of a bourgeoisie kind of a guy, in fact, I probably relate more with the serfs (I know I just mixed socio-economic systems, bear with me).

Keywords:

Golf Advertising

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I’m not too much of a bourgeoisie kind of a guy, in fact, I probably relate more with the serfs (I know I just mixed socio-economic systems, bear with me). This particular fact about me is the result not only of a static social hierarchy (although social fluidity is touted like its simple matter of signing up for your preferred lot), but also as a little bit of personal taste. For one, I’m not real big on the uniform that seems to permeate the elite. Pastels don’t sit well with me and pleated white and khaki shorts just above the knee make me feel uncomfortable. I’d rather sew up the rip in my jeans, put my feet on the table and curse a little with my friends. There is one thing though…golf.

Wow, getting a group of friends together, totting along a course regulation breaking cooler and swinging some sticks…now we’re talking. The thing about golf is that there isn’t a thing about golf. I like to be outside. I like the tranquility. I like the sound when your driver connects just right with the ball. I like walking up my ball and quietly thinking about my next shot. I like that I could measure out 150 yards for you with a golf ball and my 8 iron. I like that on some days the cup looks really big and on others I fear it. I really like the sound made when the ball finally drops. And I even like that I’m not very good at golf and probably never will be, it’s a big outdoor chessboard. These are the things about golf to me.

Recently, though, the sanctity of my church has been infiltrated by heretics and plunderers. By far the most unnerving area on the course for me is on the tee box. I have a slice, sometimes I miss the ball all together, I can usually feel the group behind me creeping up, it’s just an all around difficult spot for me. So what I’d like is for anything that can be not unnerving to be so. That’s why when I started to see golf advertisements placed on the tee box I felt wholly unhappy.

I’m not sure if the tee box should be designated as an advertising free zone, or not, but I really can swing better with a mind free of the heaviness that bears upon it when confronted with issues such as freedom of speech, product branding and commodity fetishism. So, golf advertisers…you’ve got us. We’re hooked, we like your game, we use your product, we’ll read your magazine, but please, please leave the tee box alone.

Four Important Rules In Taking Career Tests

1. You may not like most of the career tests.

To begin with, some people hate all tests. End of story. Forcing a career tests on your best friend could lead to your premature demise.

Other people like tests, but hate particular kinds of questions. For example, some people dislike "forced-choice questions," where they must pick between two choices that are equally bad, in their view.

Other people dislike "ranking yourself against others" questions, because, with their...

Keywords:

career, development, education

Article Body:

1. You may not like most of the career tests.

To begin with, some people hate all tests. End of story. Forcing a career tests on your best friend could lead to your premature demise.

Other people like tests, but hate particular kinds of questions. For example, some people dislike "forced-choice questions," where they must pick between two choices that are equally bad, in their view.

Other people dislike "ranking yourself against others" questions, because, with their low self-esteem, they rank themselves poorly in comparison with "others" in almost everything.

Other people do not like "pick occupations you like" questions, because they've learned by experience that all occupations, as commonly practiced, are a mixture of good and bad, and they keep thinking of the bad stuff, when each occupation is mentioned.

Other people do not like questions about how they would behave in certain situations, because they tend to pick how they wish they would behave, rather than how in fact they actually do.

The career test has to feel right to the individual who is taking it.

2. There is no career test that gives better results than others.

You may take a test that gives wonderful suggestions for future careers, but when your best friend takes the same test, their results may be way off the mark. How did that happen?

Tests have personality. With respect to a given test, one person will love its look, feel, taste, and touch, while another person will hate it on sight. Unfortunately, how one feels about a test will definitely twist your results.

3. No career test should be considered to be accurate.

We turn to tests with the hope that someone can definitely tell you who you are and what you should do. A definite no no.

Test results are sometimes way off the mark. On many online tests, if you answer even two questions inaccurately, you will get completely wrong results and recommendations.

There are countless sad stories about people whose lives were sent down a completely wrong path by test 'results' that they believed when they should not have. You should take all test results with not just a grain of salt, but with a barrel.

Tests have one great mission and purpose: To give you ideas you have not thought of and suggestions worth following up. But if you ask them to do more than that, you are dreaming. Also do not forget to take several career tests, rather than just one. You will get a much better picture of your preferences, profile, and good career suggestions from three or more tests, rather than just one.

4. Always trust your intuition to be your guide.

You know more about yourself than any career test does. Treat no test outcome as 'gospel'. Reject the summary the test gives you, if it just seems dead wrong to you.

Trust your intuition. On the other hand, if you really like the suggestions the career test gave you, do not agonize about whether those suggestions are worth tracking down. Just do it and listen to your heart.

Career tests are fun, but reading the results is not enough. You are not done until you have thought hard about what distinguishes you from every other member of the human race.

Nothing wrong with taking all the career tests you can handle until you finally realize that you are a unique individual.